Multi-Cultural

Mosaic by Arinna Weisman

[Translation in Spanish below ~ Version en espanol a continuacion] For the very reason we are different, with different experiences and expressions, we have the possibility of enriching each other’s lives in unforeseen ways. My experience of “coming out” and acknowledging that I am queer has been such a beautiful way I experience life. I also think of the movie “The Visitor” and the opening that happened between an elderly white professor and an African couple. Opening our hearts to our and others’ diversity is about opening to life and happiness and can’t be excluded from our spiritual practice.

The Buddha is unequivocal: he states in “The Four Foundations of Mindfulness”, one of the foundational sutras in all Buddhist lineages, that the practice of mindfulness or awareness will bring us freedom and liberation from suffering: “Monks, this is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the passing away of pain and dejection…for the realization of Nirvana.”

This invocation along with the kindness and wisdom expressed by teachers of contemplative traditions has inspired many of us to practice. We have assumed that as we strengthen awareness we will transcend all cultural conditioning including the conditioning around race, class and gender and other oppressions.

Yet we find, when looking at churches, synagogues, monasteries, and meditation centers that these dynamics continue to live. In Buddhist monasteries there is the belief that women should not be ordained and the monks in power use quotes from the Buddhist sutras to justify this. In Thailand there are meditation masters who are considered fully enlightened who will not teach women or include women practitioners in their monasteries.

This is not to challenge the transformative capacities of contemplative traditions but to inquire into the structures and process that have been developed historically that continue to perpetuate the exclusion of some. It is helpful, for example, to consider the way the practice of mindfulness has become so individualized that spirituality becomes synonymous with the personal. Undertaking a spiritual practice most usually means taking time to sit quietly with oneself, but when this becomes our only spiritual practice social dynamics that we have unconsciously internalized often continue to remain hidden and unexamined.

Although the transmission of teachings from one generation to another might not consciously include structures that continue to privilege some over others, this is the outcome of a tradition unexamined. For example in one of the Western monasteries where I lived, nuns were excluded from the decision-making council of the monastery. Thus the lineage continued only to be held by monks and passed on by monks. When this was challenged by the nuns they were told they did not have a deep enough spiritual practice. The monks’ response relegated a structural challenge to a personal deficiency, a safe way for the monks to continue to remain the sole lineage holders.

There are many that might agree that this is true but argue that the work of examining these dynamics should be relegated to another field of study such as politics and should not be in the realm of spiritual or contemplative practice.

However there is common agreement that spiritual practice is a process of purification in which the energies of greed, hatred, and delusion are uprooted and clear the way for unconditional loving-kindness and wisdom. In the Abbhidhamma, a Buddhist exploration of consciousness, there is a detailed analysis of mind states. It is clearly stated that all negative qualities of the mind arise out of delusion, wrong views, or ignorance. They are defined as not seeing things as they truly are. This is also the definition of suffering.

When we examine the process of learning to be racist, classist or homophobic, we find biased perceptions with these same mental qualities. Let’s take an example. Nancy, a young white child, wants to play with her new friend Juana, a Puerto Rican. They walk across the railway line to Juana’s home. On returning to her home,Nancy is chastised by her mother: “You are never to go to that part of town again. Do you understand? That IS NOT the part of town we walk in!” Nancy internalizes this distorted view and it is held in place with fear and probably some shame.

There is a negative identity we have established as whites and this is also the mechanism of perpetuating relationships of superiority/inferiority. As white dharma students we have the opportunity (see schedule) to explore how we might awaken to these patterns, free our hearts of these constrictions, and build multicultural sanghas.

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It is always a pleasure to meet with you either in person or by skype/phone to share time in inquiries into practice, challenges in life, or questions about the teachings. A choice is offered of 20 minutes for dana or what you are moved to offer or for an hour a sliding scale of $60-150.
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